Stoner

On the afternoon that Stoner stopped by his office, they spoke for a few moments casually about their families; Finch maintained the easy convention of pretending that Stoner's marriage was a normal one, and Stoner professed his conventional disbelief that Gordon and Caroline could be the parents of two children, the younger of which was already in kindergarten.

After they had made their automatic gestures toward their casual intimacy, Finch looked out his window distractedly and said, "Now, what was it I wanted to talk to you about? Oh, yes. The dean of the Graduate College--he thought, since we were friends, I ought to mention it to you. Nothing of any importance." He looked at a note on his memo book. "Just an irate graduate student who thinks he got screwed in one of your classes last semester."

"Walker," Stoner said. "Charles Walker."

Finch nodded. "That's the one. What's the story on him?"

Stoner shrugged. "As far as I could tell, he didn't do any of the reading assigned--it was my seminar in the Latin Tradition. He tried to fake his seminar report, and when I gave him the chance either to do another one or produce a copy of his paper, he refused. I had no alternative but to flunk him."

Finch nodded again. "I figured it was something like that. God knows, I wish they wouldn't waste my time with stuff like this; but it has to be checked out, as much for your protection as anything else."

Stoner asked, "Is there some--special difficulty here?"

"No, no," Finch said. "Not at all. Just a complaint. You know how these things go. As a matter of fact, Walker received a C in the first course he took here as a graduate student; he could be kicked out of the program right now if we wanted to do it. But I think we've about decided to let him take his preliminary orals next month, and let that tell the story. I'm sorry I even had to bother you about it."

They talked for a few moments about other things. Then, just as Stoner was about to leave, Finch detained him casually.

"Oh, there was something else I wanted to mention to you. The president and the board have finally decided that something's going to have to be done about Claremont. So I guess, beginning next year, I'll be dean of Arts and Sciences-- officially."

"I'm glad, Gordon," Stoner said. "It's about time."

"So that means we're going to have to get a new chairman of the department. Do you have any thoughts on it?"

"No," Stoner said, "I really haven't thought of it at all."

"We can either go outside the department and bring in somebody new, or we can make one of the present men chairman. What I'm trying to find out is, if we did choose someone from the department-- Well, do you have your eyes on the job?"

Stoner thought for a moment. "I hadn't thought about it, but--no. No, I don't think I'd want it."

Finch's relief was so obvious that Stoner smiled. "Good. I didn't think you would. It means a lot of horse-shit. Entertaining and socializing and--" He looked away from Stoner. "I know you don't go in for that sort of thing. But since old Sloane died, and since Huggins and what's-his-name, Cooper, retired last year, you're the senior member of the department. But if you haven't been casting covetous eyes, then--"

"No," Stoner said definitely. "I'd probably be a rotten chairman. I neither expect nor want the appointment."

"Good," Finch said. "Good. That simplifies things a great deal."

They said their good-bys, and Stoner did not think of the conversation again for some time.

Charles Walker's preliminary oral comprehensives were scheduled for the middle of March; somewhat to Stoner's surprise, he received a note from Finch informing him that he would be a member of the three-man committee who would examine him. He reminded Finch that he had flunked Walker, that Walker had taken the flunk personally, and he asked to be relieved of this particular duty.

"Regulations," Finch answered with a sigh. "You know how it is. The committee is made up of the candidate's adviser, one professor who has had him in a graduate seminar, and one outside his field of specialization. Lomax is the adviser, you're the only one he's had a graduate seminar from, and I've picked the new man, Jim Holland, for the one outside his specialty. Dean Rutherford of the Graduate College and I will be sitting in ex-officio. I'll try to make it as painless as possible."

But it was an ordeal that could not be made painless. Though Stoner wished to ask as few questions as possible, the rules that governed the preliminary oral were inflexible; each professor was allowed forty-five minutes to ask the candidate any questions that he wished, though other professors habitually joined in.